New Innovation Center in Lynn Explored by NYC Development Firm

Partnership Between Institute for Intrapreneurship and Special Project Office to Bring Center and New Jobs to the Gateway City

LYNN, MA--(Marketwired - Sep 9, 2014) - Special Project Office (SPO), a New York City-based strategy design firm known for its large-scale, urban innovation projects -- including work on the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City and an urban innovation partnership with Arup -- is exploring developing an innovation center in Lynn, known as the Lynn Innovation and Intrapreneurship Gateway. SPO is working in partnership with the Institute for Intrapreneurship while reaching out to city leaders to forge a true public-private partnership development opportunity.

The Lynn Innovation and Intrapreneurship Gateway is an urban development program designed to capitalize on commercial and underutilized industrial space in the city of Lynn to build a site that fosters sustainable innovation, future job training, and modern manufacturing and production opportunities emerging from the plethora of labs and innovation centers in the Boston region. The center will provide a shared physical environment to foster innovation and build intrapreneurship within and between businesses.

"Patterned after and building on the model of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and The New Lab, the Lynn Innovation and Intrapreneurship Center will be a permanent facility that establishes the utility of pooling resources to create and sustain innovation-based growth," said Peter Ickes of the Institute of Intrapreneurship. "The model specifically seeks to combine and repurpose existing capital assets with emerging intellectual property to deliver new value to established markets while developing entirely new opportunities. The intent is to replicate the model for deployment throughout the U.S."

"Lynn has not been immune to the challenges that many industrial cities across the country are grappling with," said Richard Tyson, a Principal at SPO. "But its proximity to Boston, trained workforce, existing infrastructure and natural beauty all position Lynn to become the crown jewel of Gateway Cities. This innovative, job-creating development will help make Lynn an icon of the industrial future."

Lynn is already poised for development with Waterfront Revitalization efforts and an initiative to revamp the presently barren property off of Western Ave. The Lynn Innovation and Intrapreneurship Gateway project will leverage the dynamic changes that are planned for the city by harnessing increased economic activity and investment to revolutionize the nature of Lynn's current state and future trajectory. Lynn is entering a new era of progress and this project will be a central part of the city's future.

"We initially came to Lynn at the request of Seth Moulton, who is currently running for Congress in Lynn's district," says Tyson. "Seth Moulton showed us around the community and sold us on the potential of the Lynn sites to really make a positive impact for the region."

The Institute for Intrapreneurship is a collective of experienced business executives, thought leaders, and academic influencers who seek to address and solve the challenges found in organizations trying to innovate successfully. With the Lynn Innovation and Intrapreneurship Gateway, the Institute will help implement a collaborative research, education, and certification program in intrapreneurship to foster the skills, techniques, and intellectual resources necessary to make innovation the driver of sustained business and thereby regional economic growth. This program will train and certify participants, individual enterprises, and innovation partnerships.

Special Project Office is working in partnership with the Institute for Intrapreneurship and city leaders to identify a potential site for the development. Local stakeholders, including government officials, community groups, and colleges and universities, have been engaged with the project and will convene for a forum in the coming weeks.